Sky Blog
With trillions of dollars in assets, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) play a major role in financial markets around the world. With billions (and perhaps trillions) of dollars’ worth of equity investments around the world, the investment behavior of SWFs is …
The corporate governance literature has shown a strong link between good governance practices and firm value. The mechanisms, however, that determine the choice of effective corporate governance and board arrangements in a changing global market are not well studied. In …
The fluidity of labor markets depends on the ease with which one side of the market can fulfill the needs of the other: whether workers can find employment that suits their skills and firms can find adequate substitutes for workers …
After a period of public consultation, the European Central Bank (the “ECB”) published its final Guidance on Leveraged Transactions (the “Guidance”) on May 16, 2017[1]. Twenty-four organisations (comprising credit institutions and market associations) commented directly on the ECB’s …
Tax planning by multinational enterprises (MNEs) is estimated to generate a worldwide loss of corporate tax revenues of between $100 billion and $240 billion. U.S.-based MNEs alone are believed to retain a total of $2 trillion in earnings outside the …
The United States has long offered its domestic industrial base preferential treatment in the Federal government marketplace through laws and regulations requiring agencies to prefer purchase of American-made products and contracts with American companies, and only resort to other sources …
In late March, the Trump administration took several steps to begin implementation of its “America First” international trade agenda. We note three actions in particular:
First, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Secretary of Commerce and the U.S. …
The UK Government triggered on March 29, 2017, Article 50 TEU. As a result, the UK is likely to have exited the EU by March 2019.
In a speech delivered on January 17, Prime Minister (“PM”) May explained …
The world of Harry Potter is divided into wizards and muggles, those who can work magic, and those who (sadly) cannot. In the world of US federal securities laws, the division between domestic US companies and foreign private issuers, or …
On March 1, 2017, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) released its National Trade Policy Agenda for 2017 (“Trade Agenda”) describing the President’s trade policy objectives. The Trade Agenda is consistent with President Trump’s campaign promises to fundamentally …
2017 has started with a bang on the data protection front. The new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is intended to harmonise data protection legislation across the EU, was adopted in April last year and is due to …
On January 26 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) released its first set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB). The BCBS published the FRTB in January 2016 with the intent to …
The House Republicans have proposed sweeping changes to the U.S. tax system, specifically that income from the export of goods, services and intangibles will not be subject to federal income tax, and that the cost of such imports into the …
President Trump made many statements during the campaign regarding actions he plans to take to reverse Obama administration sanctions policies.[1] These included revisiting the agreement to ease sanctions on Iran, rolling back the sanctions program against Russia, and reversing …
China’s antitrust regulators have continued to increase their enforcement of the Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) in 2016. Given the high level of scrutiny in this area and the current legal environment in China, compliance with the AML should be a priority …
“What does Sarbanes-Oxley mean? That’s when two members of U.S. Congress fiddle and half a million accountants in Europe start dancing.”[1]
President Donald Trump pledged during his electoral campaign to repeal some of the reforms that came about …
2016 was, by any measure, an extraordinary year for the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission assessed a record-shattering total of nearly $2.5 billion in penalties. But despite those …
While a major overhaul of U.S. financial regulation may be unlikely during the early months of the Trump administration, changes should be expected as his nominees to lead the Treasury Department and financial regulatory agencies are confirmed. This will be …
On January 13, the UK Government took a step towards significant reform of the business crime landscape by issuing a formal “call for evidence” in relation to corporate liability for economic crimes such as fraud, false accounting and money laundering. …